NHK In Japan Tests 8K Video Broadcast

Just when you thought that 4K TVs are going to be the next big thing, technologically advanced Japan throws another spanner in the works with word that NHK is starting to test broadcasts of Super Hi-Vision, which is the 8K standard. In comparison, 8K standard would make 4K resemble that of a VHS tape that is played back on a fat and chunky CRT TV from the previous century, or at least something of the equivalent. NHK sent an uncompressed Super Hi-Vision signal approximately 17 miles over the air to a receiver, all the while taking up just a single UHF TV channel.

This is a pretty impressive achievement actually, especially when you consider how the 7,680 by 4,320 pixel 8K image has four times the resolution of 4K video, and if you were to divulge in a little bit of mathematics, 16 times that of the regular 1,920 by 1,080p HD video which we currently enjoy on our respective Blu-ray discs. In a nutshell, Super Hi-Vision is more or less equal to approximately five dozen 32-megapixel photographs that are being sent out every second, not to mention sporting a frame rate of 120 frames per second and accompanied by a 22.2 channel audio soundtrack. Do you think that we are about to enter an age of visual overload? The infrastructure among the masses is not quite there yet – far from it, itn fact, but this is a start.